Key lessons from Manchester City’s failure in the Champions League

The loss of influential figures and the club's inability to sign blue-chip
players in the summer transfer window have left Roberto Mancini without a
lifeline and needing to deliver the Premier League title to appease the
owners.

1. Abu Dhabi expectations: the title at the very least Roberto Mancini was set two clear objectives by Manchester City’s Abu Dhabi regime at the start of the season. The first was to retain the Premier League title, the second to take the team into the knockout stages of the Champions League.

Mancini has failed to achieve the latter, with City dismally finishing bottom of Group D with just three points, so he must now deliver the title or face a hugely uncomfortable debriefing with chairman Khaldoon al Mubarak at the end of the season.

With City well placed to retain their title, Mancini is at least in control of his destiny and, as last season proved, the club’s Abu Dhabi power brokers are prepared to play the long game rather than take knee-jerk decisions when results go awry. However, the Champions League failure, and subsequent inability to qualify for the Europa League, has been viewed as a major setback in Abu Dhabi, so Mancini has certainly used up one of his lifelines.

2. Scrutiny over transfer window spending Mancini was at pains to stress during the summer that the time to strengthen is when you are on top and his concerns over the failure of the City hierarchy to move quickly for top targets was well-publicised.

Five new signings did arrive at the Etihad Stadium as the clock ticked towards the transfer deadline, but while all of those players had been identified as targets by Mancini, they were second-tier recruits rather than the blue-chip players he had placed at the top of his list.

Mancini called a halt to City’s pursuit of Eden Hazard due to the cost of the deal, but he was determined to land Robin van Persie, Javi Martínez and Daniele de Rossi, yet ended up with none of them.

Mancini warned that the title-winning squad was not good enough to win the Champions League, but even with their August additions they still fell a long way short of even escaping their group.

3. European tactics On more than one occasion during City’s Champions League journey this season, Mancini has been asked whether his own pride has been hurt by his team’s inability to rise to the big occasion. Each time, the Italian has swerved the issue, opting instead to point out how difficult it is for clubs such as City, who are relatively new to the competition, to succeed.

Yet while City’s failings can be ascribed to faltering first steps, Mancini is no European rookie and his Champions League record is, quite simply, a tale of underachievement.

With Inter Milan and now City, he has not progressed beyond the quarter-finals. Why? Well, against rival coaches Jose Mourinho, Frank de Boer and Jurgen Klopp, he has been outsmarted in this season’s competition, with all three devising tactical plans to defeat City.

City have proven to be easy to read in Europe and Mancini’s tactics, defensively and offensively, have not been good enough.

4. Volume levels in the dressing room Small details can often highlight bigger issues and the absence from the City dressing-room this season of Nigel de Jong (sold to AC Milan) and Micah Richards (injured for all but four games) has hit the squad hard. Both players, De Jong in particular, have been dominant voices in the dressing room, strong characters prepared to speak out and provide leadership within the squad.

As each of the City players walked through the post-match mixed in Dortmund on Tuesday, refusing to discuss the Champions League disappointment with reporters, the absence of characters like De Jong and Richards, who are traditionally prepared to face up to their inquisitors, was evident again.

Roy Keane, Patrice Evra, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard have all shared similar traits and been prepared to front up when it is easier to walk on by in the past, yet City lack similar figures.